Craig Lowndes career highlights

Craig Lowndes career highlights

One of Australian motorsport’s greatest ever talents, Lowndes is a six-time Bathurst winner, the winningest driver in V8 Supercar history with 104 race wins, scoring three titles and finishing second six times, which is where he finds himself in this year’s championship.

Here are some of the highlights from his long and successful career.

1994 – The Kid makes himself known

Bathurst 1994 was when the world really sat up and took notice of Craig Lowndes, with the then-20-year-old young fun passing veteran John Bowe around the outside into turn three. Lowndes would go on to finish the race in second, but it was a sign of things to come.

1999 – The Calder crash

Fast forward to 1999 and after an unsuccessful stint in Europe, Lowndes is back dominating the V8 Supercar championship. The path to his third title hit a slight hiccup, however, with this enormous accident at the Calder Park round, which wrote off the HRT Commodore and forced Craig to miss the next round through injury.

2006 – Tribute to Brock

Jumping camps to Ford in 2001 sadly brought little success, however a switch to 888 Racing quickly put Lowndes back on top. In one of the most emotional moments in Aussie motorsport history, Lowndes took his second Bathurst win just weeks after the death of his friend and mentor, Peter Brock.

2010 – Australian Safari win

Keen for something different, Lowndes managed to squeeze in time to race in the Australian Safari off-road race, winning at his first attempt in a V8 Holden Colorado.

2010 – Bathurst lap record

Twenty-ten proved to be a good year for Lowndes. Following his Safari win he headed to Bathurst on a mission, breaking the lap record in practice before winning his fifth Bathurst, this time with former HRT teammate Mark Skaife co-driving.

2011 – F1 at Bathurst, realising a dream

With Vodafone’s massive marketing budget sponsoring both the 888 Racing V8 Supercar outfit and the McLaren-Mercedes F1 team, the opportunity arose for Jenson Button and Lowndes to swap seats around Mount Panorama.

2015 – 100 race wins

Proving he has no plans to slow down, Lowndes became the first driver in V8 Supercar history to notch up 100 race wins at Hidden Valley last year and celebrated in style on the cool-down lap.

2015 – Sixth Bathurst win

With another victory in 2015, Lowndes joined Mark Skaife and Larry Perkins as the only people to have won Bathurst six times, with only Jim Richards (seven wins) and Peter Brock (nine wins) having enjoyed more success at The Mountain.

This onboard lap sums up everything that’s great about Lowndes’ driving. A great overtake, heaps of commitment and oversteer over the top of the mountain and then letting go of the steering wheel for a break down Conrod.